Browns' Gordon not so flashy against Bears

Sunday

Dec 15, 2013 at 8:22 PM

Josh Gordon jokes about a minor wreck in a vehicle driven by his high school quarterback a day before playing the Bears. Gordon says he had fun Sunday even though Chicago cooled him off and the Browns lost.

Steve Doerschuk CantonRep.com sports writer @sdoerschukREP

The legend of "Flash" took a wrong turn in ice and snow.

On Saturday, Browns wideout Josh Gordon escaped a crash in which his black Range Rover, driven by a friend, crashed in winter weather.

Gordon wrote on Instagram, where he posted a photo of his dinged SUV on a flatbed truck, alongside a snow-covered road: "@el_padrino16 first day out here & we nearly died."

"El_padrino" was an inside reference to Bram Koulhausen, who was Gordon's quarterback at Lamar High School in Houston. Koulhausen, a college quarterback at Los Angeles Harbor Community College this season, was in Ohio to visit Gordon.

Koulhausen was driving the Range Rover when slick conditions caused a vehicle in front of him to go into a spin. When Koulhausen swerved to avoid a collision, the SUV slid into a hill.

Neither was injured.

Long after the Browns had lost to the Bears on Sunday, linebacker D'Qwell Jackson was surprised to hear of the fender bender.

"That's news to me," Jackson said. "First I heard about it."

Gordon has been the hottest player in the NFL, racking up 744 receiving yards in his previous four games.

The Bears cooled him off, holding him without a catch in the first half.

"It was frustrating," Gordon said. "Sometimes we click a little earlier in the game. Sometimes we don't."

He caught a 43-yard touchdown pass with 59 seconds left to cut a Chicago lead to 38-31, which became the final score.

Playing in a 14-degree wind chill, Gordon finished with three catches for 67 yards. He needed 88 yards to pass Calvin Johnson for the biggest five-game stretch (861 yards) in NFL history.

Did the Bears smother him with special coverage?

"Not at all," Campbell said. "That's the surprising part. They just played cover two ... pretty basic defense. We just missed a few plays."

The biggest miss came on Jason Campbell's only throw toward Gordon in the first half.

The Browns led 10-3 and could have had more if Campbell had connected with Gordon, who had broken open deep-middle on third down near midfield. The ball was wide. Gordon got a hand on it.

"It looked like Josh was trying to gear down in the hole," head coach Rob Chudzinski said. "Jason (may have) thought he was going to keep going."

Campbell has turned such openings into touchdowns en route to a 1,467-yard year. Not this time.

After a punt, Jay Cutler drove the Bears to a touchdown in the final minute of the half for a 10-all tie.

Gordon didn't blame the weather.

"It's Cleveland," he said. "It's been worse."

Gordon, 22, didn't seem too bummed out about the team's fifth straight loss. He said during the week the Browns are building toward the playoffs next year.

"I had fun, and I'm sure a lot of the guys had fun," he said. "It's unfortunate when you can't win. I still enjoyed the game."

Bears head coach Marc Trestman said the game plan was to give Gordon room on short stuff and not let him get open deep.

"We were able to contain him somewhat," Trestman said.

Gordon looked almost disgusted, rather than exhilarated, after scoring his late touchdown. The TD became meaningless when the Browns failed to recover an onside kick.

"Even if you recover the onside kick, to score in about 30 seconds is kind of difficult," he said. "The coming-from-behind thing takes a toll on you."